Hamas accuses Palestinian Authority of torturing, abusing political prisoners
Palestinian women at the funeral of Hamas activist Fadi Hamadneh who died inside a Palestinian Authority prison, West Bank village of Assira Shamaliya, 12 August 2009
Ahmad Melhem reports in Al-Monitor on 2 July 2022:
Hamas accused security forces in the West Bank of escalating “political detention crimes based on political opinions or resistance to the occupation.” In a statement released June 14, Hamas said the arrests were coupled with “atrocious torture and inhuman treatment denigrating detainees and their families.”
Hamas condemned “the cheap methods of the PA security apparatus in fabricating lies and stories against detainees for exposed ends that our people will not believe.” Hamas fully blamed “the influential PA leadership for these ongoing abuses, calling on it to immediately release all detainees.”
The Palestinian police also announced June 6 that there was an explosion inside a carpentry workshop in Beitounia that caused material damage but no casualties; the police proceeded with their inquiries and shut down the workshop. They did not mention the owner’s identity, and the Explosives Ordinance Disposal Authority and civil defense were tasked with preparing the necessary reports and inspecting the place.
Official authorities did not issue any statement about the results of the explosion, but security forces launched a wave of arrests in the aftermath. Social media pages close to the Palestinian Authority (PA) claimed that the detainees were involved in preparing a plan to target the PA in Ramallah and officers in the security services and posted pictures and maps it said had been seized. When corroborating the information and photos, some turned out to be invalid.
Al-Monitor tried to contact the spokesperson for the Palestinian security services, Talal Dweikat, for comment on the reports about the arrests and torture. But he did not answer our calls. Meanwhile, the security services did not issue any public statement on the arrests or the results of the investigation into the explosion. Of note, the PA’s security forces often deny carrying out any political arrests in the West Bank.